A relatively large amount of information is required by doctors, physicians, and medical providers. This information is usually maintained on computers at a medical facility or other central locations. When a practitioner wishes to view and review medical files for patients, the practitioner usually connects to the computer storing the information, such as using a terminal at the facility or a remotely connected computer. However, in today's mobile society, access to a full power computer is not always possible. Practitioners want to be able access information on portable remote devices such as cellular based communication devices or browser based portable devices (iPhones, iPod Touch, etc.).
Unfortunately the processing power of these remote devices, as well as limited memory and other limitations inherent on smaller devices cause difficulty in getting the necessary information in a timely and efficient manner. As such, the inventors have realized that a user needs a way to display and manipulate data viewed in a remote device having limited processing power.
A number of patents exist which relate to medical software for physicians, including, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,426,475; 7,072,840; 5,737,539; 5,845,255; all of which are incorporated herein by reference. Several projects related to 3D-imaging are TeleMed-VS, 3D-DOCTOR, PACS, and OsiriX. The projects related to 3D-imaging attempt to solve the challenge of medical 3D-imaging by storing large 3D-image files (image files composed of multiple 2D images) and manipulating such files through the use of graphical libraries. OsiriX brings clinical images to the iPhone, however, it does not allow for manipulations.
The above-noted patents and ideas fail to solve the challenge of portability and efficiency because they do not incorporate multiple needs of the physician into one implementation, which increases efficiency. Also, the majority of the patents and ideas do not address the issue of portability, which is essential to efficiency.
The present invention is designed to address these needs.